What happens when we wander?
Psalm 119:10I have tried hard to find you—don’t let me wander from your commands.
Psalm 119:67I used to wander off until you disciplined me; but now I closely follow your word.
Psalm 119:176I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me, for I have not forgotten your commands.
Knowing God’s word will only keep us from wandering if we are also putting it into practice. When we realize we have wandered, our memory of God’s instructions may be the first step in moving back on to God’s path.
Matthew 18:12-14“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.”
Luke 15:1-7Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them! So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!”
Both times Jesus used this illustration of a wandering sheep, he was responding to people who were questioning his associations. Matthew recorded Jesus response to the disciples’ question about greatness in the Kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:1). Jesus pointed to children and a shepherd’s love for his sheep to highlight God’s care for little ones. Luke recorded the wandering sheep story to picture God’s delight over the repentance of sinners.
2 John 1:7-9I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.
When we wander from the truth of the Gospel, we eventually become disseminators of falsehood. The first phase of wandering is our own loss of direction; the second involves influencing others to wander. While genuine believers sometimes wander, they demonstrate their genuine faith through repentance. Those who remain wanderers cast doubt on the genuineness of their original beliefs.
